Girl Talk
by linzackles
Summary: "Caroline and an Original Hybrid sitting in a tree." Everyone's been giving Caroline crap about sleeping with the Big Bad but nobody's bothered to find out why she did it. That's a best friend's job. [Elena and Caroline talk Klaroline] Canon-compliant one-shot.


I waited all season for Elena to discuss Klarosex with Caroline because, for the life of me, I could not understand why, if your best friend had sex with _anyone, never mind your freaking enemy,_ you wouldn't ask her about it. Anyway, it never happened so obviously I had to write this; I've been working on it for a while. This will officially be the first fanfiction I've ever written that isn't Klaus and Caroline (yip, upfront I'm gonna say that Klaus does not make an appearance at all) but I just had to.

So yeah, no Klaus, but I'd definitely regard this as a Klaroline fic anyhow.

This fits perfectly into canon, picking up from the cold open of 5x18.

I wrote this mostly to appease my own mind but I thought I'd share in case anyone had the same logic issue as me.

Enjoy :)

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"You ok?"

Caroline was putting on her other earring as Elena seemed to gather ahold of herself after having woken up with one of those exaggerated horror movie gasps.

"Yeah, I just… I just had a really crazy dream," Elena replied breathily.

Caroline gave her a weird look then rounded her bed and took a seat.

"Wanna talk about it?" she offered.

Elena seemed to consider then lay back down, her face covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Caroline wondered what on earth Elena's dream could've been about.

She seemed spooked.

"No." Elena frowned. "Not right now, maybe when I wrap my head around how weird it was."

Caroline frowned too. "…Ok. We have about an hour before we're meeting my mom for coffee, if you're still up for it."

Elena nodded. "Yeah, of course I am."

But she didn't move, just stayed lying on her back as she stared up at the roof.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Caroline confirmed.

"I just need a few minutes. I feel like… talking," Elena seemed to realise. "About anything."

Caroline was looking at her friend sceptically when suddenly Elena turned to her with a glint in her eye.

"And I know exactly what we should talk about," she said with a raised eyebrow.

Confused by Elena's sudden change of mood, Caroline shrugged.

"Ok, what about? Damon?"

Elena groaned. "_No_. That's last on the list of things I need to be talking about right now. But…" she started, smiling slyly, "he was the one who told me about something."

Caroline narrowed her eyes. "What?"

Elena stared at her pointedly for a few seconds before finally coming out with it.

"You… and Klaus."

Caroline's cheeks pinked and she put her hands up to her face.

"Oh my god."

She'd hoped she wouldn't have to have this conversation again.

"_You slept with him_?" Elena pressed.

Caroline gritted her teeth through a smile then removed her hands.

"Elena, I promise you were the first person I told. Well… I thought it was you, anyway," she winced.

Elena winced too, not even wanting to imagine what Katherine's reaction had been.

Elena pulled her elbow under her, perching her head on her hand.

"So, I mean, how did that even happen?"

Caroline's blush only deepened as she worried away at her lip. How was she even more nervous to talk to Elena about this the second time around?

"I'm sorry, Caroline; I'm just still trying to get myself caught up on everything. If you don't want to talk about it, I get it – "

"No, Elena! No. It's not that. I'm just… still trying to sort that day out for myself, if I'm being honest."

"Ok," Elena nodded understandingly. "Well let's start with the easy stuff: when and where did it happen?"

Caroline bit at the inside of her lip. This was actually probably the most embarrassing part of it all.

"Uh… it was the day Katherine was dying. Klaus came to town to gloat because duh, he's Klaus, and I met him in the woods and…"

Elena's eyes widened. "You had sex with Klaus in the woods?"

"God, Elena, not that loud!"

Elena smirked. They were the only ones in their dorm room and she doubted anyone else cared about Caroline's sex life.

"Wow. That's… wow. Even for you."

Caroline gasped. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Elena arched an eyebrow. "Um, the caves with Tyler?"

Caroline laughed in surprise. She'd completely forgotten about that.

"I feel like I overshare," she realised sheepishly.

"When it comes to your sexcapades? _Yeah_," Elena laughed.

Caroline rolled her eyes but laughed along as she thought about how to explain what exactly had happened to Elena.

"So Klaus was there, _in the woods_," she emphasised with a giggle, "and – "

She broke off, having still not figure out how to phrase this. Telling Elena about Klaus asking for her confession and then explaining her resulting 'confession' meant explaining _a lot _of other things too.

Everything that had happened between her and Klaus had been during moments when they'd been by themselves. And, sure, her friends knew about when they'd sent her out to play the distraction but none of them knew how much she'd actually _enjoyed _that job.

"He told me that he was never coming back to town again… and I kissed him," she simplified it. "And, god Elena, it felt _so _good to kiss him, like he's just a really good kisser and his – "

"Less details, Care," Elena reminded.

Pulling herself from the trance she'd gone into as she'd thought of Klaus' lips and tongue, Caroline laughed.

"Right, sorry. So we kissed and it was so amazing, I just knew that I couldn't let him go after that." Caroline pinched an eye closed. "I think. I don't even know if I was thinking straight in that moment. All I remember thinking was that I needed _more_."

Elena cleared her throat pointedly and Caroline made a concentrated effort to bring herself back to the present again.

Tucked her feet up underneath her, she shifted backwards on her bed until her head was up against the headboard.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this but…"

Elena looked hesitant and Caroline's head whipped to face her.

"What?"

"I mean, it's Klaus. I can't imagine…" Elena shuddered as she thought of the man who had once drained the life away from her just to turn himself into even more of a monster. "What was it like?" she asked curiously.

Caroline felt her cheeks begin to burn up again. "You aren't seriously asking me that."

Elena giggled. "I don't mean it like that, Care. I'm just curious, I guess. I've never even thought about Klaus like… that, before. And you slept with him."

Caroline cocked her head, mulling over Elena's words.

Had Caroline really been the only one of her friends to be drawn in by that damn accent, wondering what it would be like to pull at those necklaces that constantly hung from his amazing neck? Had she been the only one to notice the confident way he walked as the lean frame of his taut muscled body owned the very air around him?

Had nobody else fixated on the way his Henleys clung to his torso in all the right spots; the way his jeans hung from his hips at a perfect angle? Was she the only one who had spent a slightly creepy amount of time cataloguing the exact shade of his lips as she wondered how hot they would be against hers (_very hot – they'd been very hot_), and what it would be like to tangle her hands in those perfect curls?

Had she been the only one to see him as more than a villain?

She shook her head, clearing it. "Um, I guess, well…"

She felt uncomfortable under Elena's gaze even though she didn't feel judged in any way. Elena simply looked curious.

"It wasn't weird," she finally managed with a deliberate nod. "The first time was actually really – "

"Wait, the _first_ time?" Elena said, sitting up completely.

Oh… right.

"How many times _were_ there?" Elena asked with wide eyes.

"It was only that one day, but… we spent most of it together," she confessed with a small smile.

"Oh my god," Elena now exclaimed, though she looked slightly amused.

"_Anyway. _The first time was fast and desperate and – "

"_Caroline_," Elena warned.

Caroline shot Elena a look. "You're being a prude, Elena Gilbert. Whatever. The _second_ time was slow and god, he just totally worshipped every part of my – "

Elena groaned, covering her ears. "Could we keep this to a PG13 rating please?"

"Ok, fine. To summarise, then, every time after that was pretty much…" Caroline scrunched up her face, thinking of one word that would suffice.

It was impossible.

"Maybe I should just remind you that he's one thousand years old and leave it at that," Caroline said with a knowing smirk.

"Not gonna think about what that means, not gonna think about what the means…" Elena droned, standing up and pulling her hands through her luscious locks as she walked.

Caroline giggled, leaning her head back again to think about, for the twenty thousandth time, that day with Klaus.

"So we've been through the when and the where," Elena recounted. "What about the why?"

Caroline's head jerked up to see Elena standing at the foot of her bed, looking at the blonde interestedly.

"The w-why?" she stuttered.

"Yeah, Caroline. You must have done it for a reason, right? You didn't just kiss Klaus because it was Wednesday."

Caroline hesitated. She couldn't explain her and Klaus to Elena – she hardly understood it herself.

"I know, it's just… no one's really asked me that yet."

As she said it she realised the truth of her words.

"Tyler and Stefan and Matt – it's come up with all of them but no one's asked me that."

Elena frowned in surprise. "Really?"

Caroline nodded sincerely and Elena sat down on the blonde's bed.

"Ok then. Tell _me_ – why?"

Elena's gaze gripped hers and Caroline's breathing sped up as she thought about _them_.

The epic story of her and Klaus. Because yes, they were epic.

Like, they'd gone through way more than Romeo and Juliet so seriously, they deserved the freaking title.

"I-I don't know."

Elena raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Caroline. You know that's not true. Even if in that moment you were just acting on impulse, I know you. You had it figured out that Matt liked me the same morning he figured it out, all because he didn't have his coffee the usual way."

"Ok, that's a telltale sign, Elena! _Two _sugars, I mean come on."

Elena rolled her eyes. "My point is you overanalyse everything to death. I know you have this figured out – or at least you've thought about it enough to tell me _something_."

Caroline sighed. Elena was right, she'd definitely given this enough thought, but…

"Ok, yes Elena, I've thought about it but I think… I just don't want to think about it," she ended lamely.

Elena frowned deeply. "Care, you seem upset."

Caroline looked down at her lap. She was more than upset – she felt about to burst into tears. She didn't say anything and Elena scooted closer.

"Why don't you want to think about it?"

Caroline's lip quivered and she felt embarrassed but at least this was Elena and not Klaus himself.

"Because. He said I'd never have to see him again and I thought that would be like the best thing ever so I made him promise and then… and _then_."

Elena nodded as she began to realise what Caroline was saying. "Now you regret it."

Caroline pulled a face. "I'm not sure if I regret it exactly, I just…" She put her face in her hands. "Ugh, who am I kidding, I _totally _regret it. Why would I ask him to make such a stupid promise? I'm an idiot!"

Elena sighed, putting a hand on Caroline's knee comfortingly.

"You aren't an idiot, Caroline."

"Then why do I feel like I want to slap myself silly because I'm really never going to get to see him again?" she asked.

She lifted her head from her hands and Elena almost pulled back in surprise when she caught sight of how the blonde's face had changed. She looked wrecked, her face contorted in confusion and… hurt.

"Caroline," Elena started soothingly. "Have you thought about _why_ you regret it?"

Caroline looked into her best friend's calm brown eyes and the answer came to her. It slipped right from her mouth, uncensored.

"I really cared for him."

That was it, right there – the why.

"I didn't know it but I really cared for him. And when I was with him, I felt freer and the way he looked at me… he made me happy," she admitted, then shook her head, training her eyes on a spot in the distance to keep from crying.

Elena was taken aback. As much as she'd wanted Caroline to open up to her about Klaus, she hadn't expected this. Never in a million years would she have suspected that Caroline actually had feelings for _Klaus_.

But if there was anyone who understood what Caroline was feeling right now, it was Elena. She'd just been through her breakup with Damon, never mind actually being with him in the first place. All her friends had thought her crazy but she hadn't been able to help how she'd felt for him.

And from what she was seeing in Caroline's eyes right now, the blonde hadn't chosen to feel this way either.

Elena took a deep breath and straightened up as she pasted a smile on her face. Cheering Caroline up was her job; she was the best friend. And usually it was Caroline's job but Elena felt like for once she could be the sunny one who did the whole pep talk thing.

"Care, look at me," she commanded.

Caroline dragged her eyes back to Elena's and wanted to slap her for looking so cheery when Caroline felt like bawling her eyes out.

She hadn't even realised it but she'd really needed to talk to someone about this so that what she'd been feeling this whole time could surface.

"Listen to me: you're going to get over this, ok?" Elena assured her with a broad smile. "You're going to find some great guy like you always do and he's going to fall head over heels for you like they always do and you're going to be happy again."

The amount of certain assurance in Elena's eyes made Caroline return her friend's warm smile. She leaned forward to embrace her, taking a deep breath.

"Thanks Elena. I needed to hear that."

They separated and Elena shrugged.

"It's true. You're going to find someone who deserves you, Caroline." Then she sighed. "Now I need to go take a shower or we're going to be so late," Elena said, standing up to root around for an outfit.

Caroline watched, biting her lip as she thought.

_You're going to be happy again._

Did she want to be happy with someone who wasn't Klaus when she already knew deep in her gut that that exact level and kind of happiness could never be recreated?

Then she realised another source of her regret – she'd never even gotten to feel what it was like to really _be_ with Klaus.

Elena had grabbed a towel and was on her way into the bathroom when Caroline called her name. She turned with a slight frown.

"Elena, do you think Damon deserves you?"

Elena's frown deepened as she stared at her friend in confusion. Still, Caroline seemed to be expecting an answer so Elena struggled for one.

"Um… I don't know. I've never thought about it like that."

There was a small silence before Caroline spoke again in a tiny defeated voice.

"You just love him, huh?"

Elena hesitated but, seeing that the dejected and broken look had returned to Caroline's eyes, she made her way into the bathroom with no answer; there was nothing to say to that.

Caroline stood up and went over to the mirror to check that her makeup still looked good.

She knew that later her and Elena would pretend that this entire conversation had never happened because it was awkward and they both liked smoothing things over; always bringing the centre of attention back to Elena.

And for once that didn't even bother Caroline; she _wanted_ this to go away. Because the sooner she forgot about Klaus, the sooner she could forget about her feelings for him.

_You just love him._

Caroline Forbes would bounce back – that was who she was.

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I hope you liked it, review if you want :)


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